The present invention relates to a new and improved clamp for clamping a pair of cables and more particularly, to a new and improved clamp easily used in the field.
Utility poles, support poles and similar structures often employ steel cables for structural integrity. Typically, in these structures it is necessary to clamp together two steel cables that cross each other at an angle. Known clamps include at least two separate body portions joined together by a set of screws and nuts. This four piece clamp is expensive to manufacture and makes installation in the field extremely difficult. The clamp is often used in the field with the installer in a gondola positioned many feet above the ground or secured to a pole. Using the four piece clamp in this position is very difficult. The installer must juggle the several separate parts and assembly tools while assembling the clamp on the cables.
An example of a typical clamp is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,177,542. This clamp includes multiple pieces and is capable of holding only one cable. A screw and nut are required for fastening the clamp thereby increasing the number of parts to be handled by an installer. The clamp of the '542 patent is based on a cantilevered beam design capable of clamping only a single cable and not being of a design capable of providing an equal clamping load on two cables. The clamping device of the '542 patent is intended to support cable weight by gripping the cable from the sides and is not designed to prevent two crossing cables from sliding across each other while being held.
A clamp for holding two members is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,097,169. This clamp is also a multipiece device. Although the clamp supports two elements, it cannot clamp two crossing cables and suffers the same deficiencies described with regard to U.S. Pat. No. 3,177,542.
Patents disclosing clamps for crossing elements are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 526,123; 533,654 and 2,333,869. The devices in the '123 and '869 patents each have a number of pieces, making assembly in the field difficult. The device of the '654 patent is a one piece device. However, the holding forces are provided by bending the device about the crossed wires. Such a device is only capable of holding relatively lightweight wires, cannot prevent the wires from sliding and would not have the structural integrity required for clamping larger members such as steel cable.